Tim Howard describes the truck-based sellers which target low-income areas as "predators on poverty". Photo / Michael Cunningham
Mobile shops which trawl Whangarei's low-income areas targeting the poor will themselves become the target of a new campaign aiming to educate the public.
The founder of the Stop Truckshops Action Group (STAG), Tim Howard, said it was time to stop these "predators on poverty", to whom people could pay
upwards of $35 for a box of cereal, thanks to high interest rates, establishment fees and poorly-explained payment plans.
"These trucks give easy credit, at exorbitant rates, to lower income people, without naming the total costs of the buying to the buyers, just the weekly payback rates," he said.
"One of their focuses is where people already had financial problems. The shops are not just sellers, they are loan sharks. They are granting credit to people who would not have got credit elsewhere."
The shops were a familiar sight on the streets of Otangarei, Tikipunga and Raumanga and flogged a variety of goods, from groceries to electronics.
